


Satiety and Surfeit

by Noscere



Series: Cladograms and Phylogenies [9]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Depression, F/M, Families of Choice, Family Bonding, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 19:48:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11387145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noscere/pseuds/Noscere
Summary: Summer is gone. Taiyang's a mess. Yang's wondering why Raven left her behind. Ruby is hungry.Somehow, Qrow has to keep this family together.





	Satiety and Surfeit

Uncle Qrow looks at his two nieces – one by blood, one by choice – and tries to ignore the long aches rumbling through his belly.

 _This is your fault_ , he thinks. _You should’ve saved your money better. You could’ve done better. You should’ve been smarter, should’ve gotten off the bottle, now your nieces are starving and their dad’s a medicated mess and your sister’s gone and their mom’s dead and everything, everything has gone to hell_.

Yang briefly lifts her eyes from the newspaper sprawled on the floor. Her hand knocks the pink crayon away, sending a rainbow of dollar-store brand crayons rolling across the floor. Yang loves coloring, and decorating every wall of the house in her multicolored doodles. But there is no money to print off pictures for her to color, or buy coloring books, or even colored paper for her artwork.

“Is daddy better, Uncle?” Yang asks.

Qrow takes a deep breath. She’s too young to understand, but he feels like he owes her at least some of the truth.

“Firecracker, he’s not doing too well. But your dad’s strong. He’s gonna make it through.”

Ruby crawls over from her makeshift tent. Her cape – the one Summer sewed to fit her when Ruby is fully grown – hangs over a series of chairs Yang dragged together. 

“Uncle Qwow, ‘m hungry.” She plops into his lap. “Can we get cookies?”

Qrow tickles her underneath the chin. “There’s PBJ sandwiches on the counter. You can’t have cookies all the time, pipsqueak.” _We don’t have the money for that._ “How’re you gonna grow?”

“I drink milk!” Ruby says proudly.

Powdered milk, these days: on the island of Patch, milk sells for 12 lien for 2 gallon jugs, and that is far too much for Qrow and Taiyang’s stretched pockets. Maybe the remnants of team STRQ should get a goat. 

“You’re gonna need some veggies and bread in there, kiddo.” Qrow ruffles his niece’s hair. “Yang, back me up on this?”

Yang’s face falls. “Well… Summer always said…”

 _Summer_ , now, not _mom_ , or _mommy._ Qrow bites back the bile that rises to his throat: it’s not Yang he’s angry at. It’s Raven, for fucking off to the middle of nowhere to go play bandit queen, and Summer, for disappearing when they all needed her so much, and Taiyang, for breaking down even though it’s not his fault but Qrow needs him too. It might take a village to raise a child but Ruby and Yang have two alcoholics, and it’s just not fair to them.

It’s not fair to anyone.

 

* * *

 

 

Seems today is one of Taiyang’s bad days.

The door to the master bedroom is closed. Ruby’s pawed at it, on and off, as if her cuteness could summon her dad from the fog. Yang’s reading to her little sister now. Qrow would like to take them out for a movie and get them away from the oppressive weight that hangs over the cabin like a sword above all their heads. Sooner or later, something must break.

Qrow wonders who will break first.

He knocks. No answer.

The dark-haired man enters regardless, half expecting to see Taiyang dangling from the light fixture with the bedsheets tight around his throat. To Qrow’s relief, Taiyang is only curled up on the bed. He doubts the man has moved the entire day. It’s still better than finding his teammate dead.

“Should go hunting,” Qrow says, trying to keep his voice pleasant. “We could do with more food. Bit of fresh air, time away from…” He averts his eyes from the picture of Summer holding Ruby, Yang pawing at her adopted mother’s arms, that sits on the bedside table.

Taiyang doesn’t move from the fetal position. He doesn’t do much of anything, these days. It seems to take all his energy just to breathe, in and out, drifting on the bucketloads of medications the doctor prescribed. He’s got leave from Signal, sick pay for six months, but they spent most of it on a PI to hunt down Summer. Fat lot of good that did them all. Qrow’s gonna have to pick up a second job at this rate. Hunting Grimm brings in money, but weapons care and doctor’s visits soak up the petty cash. No such thing as a rich Huntsman, after all. Most of them do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

_And look where that got Summer._

Qrow scowls at the man huddled in blankets of rose red. The golden-haired man was the good-looking one. The popular one. The smart one. The one Summer and Raven loved. He was supposed to have all the answers. Qrow’s all bad memories and bad luck. The raven-haired man wonders if he’s the problem. Maybe he’s the reason Taiyang’s meds turn him into a zombie, dead to his beloved children and his teammate. Maybe Qrow should fly away. Take all his bad luck and cast it out to the sea. Let the good one, the golden one, raise everything from the flames.

Qrow is not bitter at all.

“All right. We’ll go to the store. Need to grab more milk… maybe visit the food pantry…” Qrow wanders into the room. He checks the glass of water sitting on the table, and the bottles of medication waiting on the side. The glass is wet, so Taiyang recently took his pills.

Qrow’s eyes widen. The smallest bottle, holding the strongest pills, is empty.

The greying man tries to keep the fear from his voice. He sits by his teammate’s bed. “Hey, Tai. Tai. You asleep?”

The lion-hearted man is still breathing: shallow, but breathing. Qrow rests the tips of two fingers against Taiyang’s neck. There’s still a heartbeat, pulsing amongst the cords of muscle.

Qrow counts off the days: fourteen since Taiyang got the prescription. There were fifteen pills a bottle, according to the label on the side. Qrow shakes himself. Probably needs to go refill the prescription. He’ll have to take Ruby and Yang with him. Tai’s in no shape to look after them right now.

God, they're such a mess.

* * *

 

 

Somewhere, there is a cruel god who decided Qrow should be the butt of the universe's joke.

First things first: he needs to make sure that Ruby and Yang are fed, clean, and happy.

Qrow visits the food pantry ten minutes before it’s set to close. He tries to ignore how paltry the shelves are, stocked with off-brand foods and cheese that can only vaguely be called cheese product, and how there’s one of Yang’s classmates leaving the pantry with her mom. He definitely does his best to ignore the dead look in the eyes of the classmate's mom, and how that changes to pity at the sight of him. 

_I don't need goddamn pity_ , he growls at the dented cans of baked beans and ravioli. _I need Summer back, Taiyang back, and everything back together again_.

His bad luck strikes as he reaches the counter, shopping basket clutched firmly in his hands. He slips - on what, he has no idea - and cans scatter everywhere. Beans burst maroon and tan all over the linoleum. Qrow gets to his hands and feet and starts trying to stuff the beans back into the cans with a cloth. The clerk helps him out, but he can only think of how much food is going to waste. How much money does it cost to can 250 mL of beans baked in pig fat? He's almost hyperventilating at the thought.

"Sir, are you all right?" the clerk asks.

"I'm fine," Qrow automatically replies, while he's screaming inside.

He bums the cheapest whiskey – crud meant to send the college students under the table – and nasty roll-up cigarettes off the local moonshiner. Qrow knows he should cut the crap and focus on the kids. But there’s a selfish part of him, a monster that screams out for the haze and painless waking dreams of alcohol and the burn of ash on his fingers.

He's not the dad the two kiddos need. But out of some cosmic joke, he's the one they've got for now.

 


End file.
